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Summer activity round up and forward look to Autumn
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Latest analysis, policy news and updates from Policy in Practice
In this issue
  • Low income Londoners and financial resilience
  • Leading Lights Network at the House of Lords: Preventing vulnerability with Lord Bird
  • A New Poverty Metric: You are invited to the Social Metrics Commission Report Launch
  • Managed Migration: Making it work for claimants
  • LIFT Dashboard user group: from analysis to impact
  • More than 60 CTRS schemes modelled this summer
  • Speaking engagements: Employment and Skills Convention 2018
  • Future webinars and speaking engagements; latest blog posts
Low income Londoners and financial resilience
Policy in Practice has concluded the third round of findings for the Low-Income Londoners and Welfare Reform project. Supported by Trust for London, we have tracked changing living standards for almost one million Londoners. We have collected 25 months of anonymised housing benefit and council tax support data on over 550,000 households from across 18 London boroughs. This has enabled us to make a unique assessment of how the living standards of low-income Londoners have changed over the last two years, and what factors have shaped these changes.
We also modelled the future living standards of households in London, considering the impact of Universal Credit and how factors like rising rents and living costs will combine to affect low income households.

Register to attend our Low Income Londoners research debrief on Wednesday 20 September
Leading Lights Network: Preventing vulnerability with Lord Bird
Policy in Practice’s third Leading Lights Network event was sponsored by Lord Bird, founder of the Big Issue, and held at the House of Lords recently. The theme was preventing vulnerability, with a particular focus on the Homelessness Reduction Act. Invited policy makers and practitioners gathered to hear how organisations can use their data to get better visibility of vulnerable households and engage early, to prevent crisis.

We were joined by:

  • Mary Holden sells the Big Issue in Westminster and kicked off the evening
  • Lord Bird epitomises policy and practice and is passionate that prevention is a core government objective
  • Anna Whalen, MHCLG, spoke about the Homelessness Reduction Act and how trailblazer funding for councils is driving inspirational and creative work aimed at prevention
  • Chris Parker and Jo Morris, Newcastle City Council, gave a practitioner perspective and their experiences of working as multi-disciplinary team
  • Nikki Middleton, Luton Borough Council, spoke about the obvious case for prevention while also needing to convince internal and external stakeholders of its impact

Read event summary blog post and share with housing colleagues
New Poverty Metric: You are invited to the Social Metrics Commission Report Launch
Deven sits on the Social Metrics Commission, an independent group of experts working to develop metrics that give us a deeper understanding of poverty. Policy in Practice's work on financial resilience has been influence by the work of the commissioners.

On behalf of the Social Metrics Commission we would like to invite you, as practitioners working to tackle poverty, to attend the launch of the new measure. You will learn from the thought process of commissioners and be able to input to how it might be practically applied and adapted for use locally.

The event is being held on Tuesday 18 September at 10:00. Please RSVP with your name, organisation and your role in tackling poverty if you are able to attend.

RSVP to events@socialmetricscommission.org.uk
Managed Migration: Making it work for claimants
The Social Security Advisory Committee has consulted on proposals to move existing claimants in receipt of a working age income-related benefit to Universal Credit. The Committee says "The task of safely moving around 3 million claimants from legacy benefits to Universal Credit raises important questions about the delivery challenge facing the department and the potential impact on claimants."

Read Policy in Practice's submission to the Universal Credit Managed Migration inquiry
LIFT Dashboard user group: from analysis to impact
Sharing successes, challenges and ideas was the agenda for our second LIFT Dashboard user group, which we held on Wednesday 29 August. Councils who analyse their household level data sets to help residents, via a LIFT Dashboard, attended this practical session. They came together to be inspired by and benchmark with their peers, and hear about new product features.

Request LIFT Dashboard user group outputs
We modelled more than 60 CTRS schemes this summer
This summer we have worked with 20 local authorities of all types to model different council tax support scheme options for them. We've modelled, on average, 3 different schemes for each council, varying different factors each time. We clearly showed how proposed changes will affect residents, arrears and support services, and what the implications for scheme administration to enable resource planning would be.

To learn what other councils are modelling, and why they're asking for our advice, join our CTRS webinar on Wednesday 17 October at 10:30.

Details and register
Speaking engagements: Employment and Skills Convention 2018
Deven Ghelani was joined by Marise Mackie, Pluss, and Hazel Dales, Ingeus, to deliver a session on how Universal Credit is supporting people on the work and health programme at the revamped Employment and Skills Conference 2018 in London on 10 July.

Policy in Practice’s Benefit and Budgeting Calculator helps people on the Work and Health programme understand and navigate the benefit system and how the move onto Universal Credit will affect them. Marise and Hazel shared practical, on the ground examples of the work they’re doing to help people transform their lives, as Universal Credit rolls out across the UK.

Read what Deven, Marise and Hazel covered here
Next webinars
 
Future speaking engagements
IRRV Annual Scottish Conference & Exhibition 2018
Wed 5 – Thurs 6 September
Crieff. Deven Ghelani will deliver a talk titled Universal Credit: where next for social policy? at 11:10 on Wednesday 5 September.

More details

Westminster Insight’s Wefare Reform Conference
Wed 26 September
Westminster. Deven Ghelani will co-presents the Keynote Panel Discussion: Universal Credit – The Full Service at 10:00.

More details

IRRV Annual Conference and Exhibition 2018
Tues 9 – Thurs 11 October
Telford. Deven Ghelani will speak on How to Identify and Prevent Homelessness at 14:35 on Wednesday 10 October. Join the team on our exhibition stand for extra info and demos.

More details

Public Policy Exchange’s Enhancing the Quality of Bailiff Industry Services
Thurs 18 October
Central London. Deven Ghelani will speak about Identifying and Supporting Vulnerable Groups: Developing a consistent, comprehensive and compassionate approach at 13:30.

More details

Digital Housing Conference 2018
Wed 31 October
Salford. In a session titled Universal Credit: how to protect rental income and support tenants at 12:10 Deven Ghelani will talk about how Universal Credit rollout is affecting tenants and housing associations, now and in the future. Marie Hardeman, Guinness, will also share how they are using digital tools to meet these challenges. Join the team on our exhibition stand for extra info and demos.

More details

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